Toward a New Rural Typology: Mapping Resources, Opportunities, and Challenges

While the concept of rurality has been debated in academic and professional literature for decades, less research has been done on a practical typology that can guide localized economic development strategies. This paper adds to the growing body of literature in search of a more nuanced definition o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Economic development quarterly 2022-08, Vol.36 (3), p.276-293
Main Authors: Khalaf, Christelle, Michaud, Gilbert, Jolley, G. Jason
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Classification
Development policy
Development strategies
Economic development
Mapping
Policy making
Rural areas
Rurality
Typology
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Summary:While the concept of rurality has been debated in academic and professional literature for decades, less research has been done on a practical typology that can guide localized economic development strategies. This paper adds to the growing body of literature in search of a more nuanced definition of rural by applying unsupervised machine learning (ML) to the abundance of existing county-level data in the United States. The authors illustrate how this method can lead to a new county typology, named after economic development strategies, that accounts for idiosyncrasies in resources, opportunities, and challenges. This research serves as a practical step toward tractable, heterogeneous classifications that can inform the work of federal, state, and local policy makers, economic development practitioners, and many others.
ISSN:0891-2424
1552-3543
DOI:10.1177/08912424211069122